Though it’s been settled for days that there are enough senators supporting the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran to support a presidential veto of a bill aiming to bar US participation, the battle for the 41 votes needed to filibuster and prevent the vote outright is coming down to the wire.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D – CO) became the 38th vote today, while Sen. Ben Cardin (D – MD) came out against the pact, complaining it “legitimizes” Iran’s civilian nuclear program and might mean Iran would have the capacity to enrich uranium to higher levels 10-15 years from now.
That means three more votes are needed to uphold the filibuster, and only five undecided senators remain, all Democrats. Every single Republican is against the Iran deal, and Cardin is only the third Democrat to join their side in the vote.
With the efforts to block US involvement in the bill outright failing, the Senate Republicans are treating getting a vote at all as a partial victory, and are also looking at introducing a number of additional bill that are designed to make implementation of the bill more difficult, and which are aimed at raising doubts about America’s dependability as a signatory.
If they can get to the magic number of 41, the GOP, Benjamin Netyahu, John Bolton, Dick Cheney, Chucky Schumer, AIPAC, all the neocons, warmongers and right wingers will stand completely humiliated. How sweet that will be,
Indeed. Senator Cardin is either a deliberate liar or a total ignoramus. At the end of the 10 years if Iran is still an NPT country, which is very likely, there are rules on the maximum U235 concentration allowed and the IAEA has still oversight rights.
As I said he is either a deliberate liar or a total ignoramus which makes him unfit to be a US Senator. Unfortunately his voters next time are hugely uninformed and will re-elect this sap.
As has been pointed out, Netanyahu and the other opponents of the deal's worst fear is that Iran might abide by it. What they worry about is a valid concern. Iran is a very old country, and always takes the long view. The risk is that they would observe the terms of the Iran deal for two or three centuries, and then, three hundred years or so from now, bam! Make a quick dash for the bomb.
So to secure the safety of our great-great-great-great-great grandchldren, this deal must be stopped.
"…America’s dependability as a signatory."
For a party that constantly brays about America's lost status and the position as preeminent world leader – they say, the Republicans and the rest of the Zionist followers in Congress seem very eager to further that decline of image and respectability. Why aren't they confronted with this obvious dichotomy? They can't have it both ways. If the US reneges on this pact which the rest of the P5 plus 1 have accepted the US – well, Congress at least will have declared that the US stands alone…because they didn't get their way.
Children.
Throw the entire bunch out before they do something really, really stupid.
The bilateral agreement SOFA-Iraq 2008 contained a very clear authority for the US president to "butt out". I have read the multilateral Iran deal again. I could not find such authority. Hence once it is in force no US president can legally butt out on his or her own authority because that would be a serious violation of the agreement.